Why is my Thermalright PA140 struggling in GoW Ragnarok?

While squaring off against Thor, my CPU temps were skyrocketing to 92-98℃, causing my frame rate to tank from 90 FPS down to a stuttery 45 FPS. It was a complete nightmare for a high-end build. The default fan curve on the Thermalright PA140 Peerless Assassin 140 is way too lazy before 70℃, meaning heat piles up at the core before the heat pipes can even move it to the fins. I tried just blasting the fans at full speed in the BIOS, but that just sounded like a jet engine taking off in my room and only dropped temps by 3℃—totally useless. I ended up redefining a stepped PWM curve, setting a steep linear ramp between 65-85℃ and bumping the max RPM to 1600. Checking HWiNFO, the peak temps settled down to 82-86℃, and my clock speeds stopped swinging wildly between 3.2-4.8 GHz, stabilizing at 4.5-4.7 GHz. I actually messed up the first attempt by making the curve too aggressive, which caused the fans to rev up and down constantly during light loads, but adding a 3-second hysteresis timer finally smoothed it out. Noise levels stayed around 38 dB. After some heavy stress testing, the temps are finally in the safe zone with fans steady at 1400-1600 RPM.
Category:Software Usage Last updated:February 25, 2026 7:23 PM